On the use of Lime in England, 59 



have heard farmers say, that it would scarcely yield six 

 bushels of wheat per acre. Here I was also in the 

 middle of lime again, and had an opportunity of see- 

 ing both sorts in constant use ; the mild, or Knotting- 

 ley lime, we had to fetch in carts or waggons, twenty 

 two miles; and was used as a top dressing, for clay, or 

 low lands well drained, as in Lancashire, at the rate of 

 one hundred bushels per acre, on old sod ; though the 

 more we applitd the better, yet when harrowed in, its 

 vegetative effects were very conspicuous for twenty 

 years. What the appearance of this lime is, in its native 

 bed, I do not remember, but the appearance of the 

 country producing it was good. 



For the plough-farming we used the caustic lime,* 

 of such a quality, that if more was applied than a 

 chaldron or sixty four bushels per acre it would en- 

 tirely stop vegetation, and where a heap was suffered 

 to lie but a short time, would, like the lime in Penn- 

 sylvania, cause the spot, on which a load is laid, to be 

 two or three years entirely bare, this lime was general- 

 ly use^ on winter grain, and harrowed in at the rate of 

 from twenty to twenty five bushels per acre, and in the 

 spring the land was seeded with grass seeds. 



The rotation of crops on this light soil,t was fal- 

 low, dunged with from ten to fifteen cart loads per acre, 



* This lime, from the colour before burning, appeared as if 

 mixed with sand, and though in a climate as congenial for farming, 

 as any part of Yorkshire, yet the soil is so stiif, dry and unfriend- 

 ly to vegetation, that its average produce is very little, compared 

 with the other parts of the country. 



t Soil a light loam on a hungry gravel scarcely any where deep: 

 er than four inches, and a great deal two and an half or three. 



